Juzcar, pronounced 'hooth-car' or 'who-th-car' or as I like to say, 'whose-car?'. Have I put a photo of this village on this blog yet... I think not so here's a photo of Juzcar.

This is the first photo of the village that I took on the day that we passed through the village after viewing the hotel for the first time back in August 2004. We arrived in Spain from London on 12 August 2004. By 30 August we had identified this property here in Juzcar as the one we would most likely purchase and low and behold here we are... a bit more than two years later.

The hotel had been for sale for a while and the previous owner was desperate to sell it, or so we are told. He had lots of debts and his wife did not want to stay in Juzcar where he was from. they also had three children attending school in Malaga so on the block the hotel went.

We got the contract agreed by the end of September, early October, which actually wasn't that long. We arrived in Juzcar on 12 October 2004, after a long holiday weekend. One mistake I think we made was not to come back here again after our initial visit. Very green we were... it didn't even dawn on us that we should have done a bit more research but then again had we done that, we probably would not have come here. I don't regret our purchase of this hotel but I do wish we had done more research before we arrived.

This is what the exterior of the hotel looked like in the first days after we arrived in Juzcar...

Notice how boring the terrace looks... no plants on the outside of the railing, no tables or chairs, a curtain hanging in the window over looking the terrace, an ugly restaurant sign with arrow, not many plants on the terrace. What you don't see is that the doors to the bar are opaque so one cannot see inside nor from inside to the outside... strange I thought to have it so. And the bar was equally boring with ugly things hanging on the walls, not much personality.

So we've made a few changes for the better since we arrived but as we look at the old photos now and see what we have achieved and what we want to do still, we just don't know when we will be able to afford to get the changes made. Poco a poco as they say here.

Here's a photo of the terrace in September 2006...

Much better now, no?

Today is Wednesday again, already!! 29 November.... so what's been happening?

We had only one booking for the weekend and that was on Saturday, a couple from Malaga. They arrived right around the time we were also invited to a baptism. One of our village people, Raul, had a son not too long ago... well his girlfriend, not him. Raul is the brother of Auxi who, together with her husband, run the bar here in Juzcar called Torrecelli's. So Raul invited the whole village of course and that includes us. You see, not all the village people are mean or bad tempered or dislike us. We have a few that come in fairly regularly and Raul is one of them.

Well our clients were arriving right around the time of the mass and then the party so we had to wait until they arrived, had dinner and then went off to bed. By that time, around midnight, the party at the school was over. But everyone had gone to the club. Yes, Juzcar has a club as well. It is called the Teleclub and it run by David, Raul's brother-in-law, and his girlfriend Ellie. The club is attached to the church, Santa Catalina, so it is a town building.

Here's a typical story of Spanish bureaucracy. The club is owned by the village hall. Back in August when all the villages have fiestas, there was a fight one night outside the club in the town plaza. It turns out that those who were fighting were all from another village, the one with the bad reputation in the Upper Genal Valley.... which I shall not name. Anyway, it was cause for the friendly Guardia Civil ('GC') to step in. The story goes that one of the chiefs from Malaga heard of the fight and asked why the Teleclub was still opened because apparently they, the GC, knew that the Teleclub did not have an operating license. This is the part that confuses me because the village hall owns and rents out the club; why in the world would they not simply issue an operating license to their tenant? Pedro, our local GC, was in a little bit of poo-poo because of this because he should have made sure they had papers or that they were closed. In the end, after the club was closed for a short while, word is that the village hall issued a temporary operating license to the club and it is opened again. Fun story that says an awful lot about the ridiculous red tape in this country!

Anyway, we went to the club on Saturday for a couple of drinks. Raul's dad, Juan, was there and was very generously offering his water deposit to us if we were ever in a crunch and without water with the hotel occupied. His finca is above the hotel's and he has a 6000 liter water deposit. I hope we never have to take him up on his offer but that was very nice of him.

I got a bit drunk as I had not had much dinner and someone is always buying us drinks when we go out there. Sunday morning was a bit difficult to say the least.

On Sunday we had a few tables for lunch but only enough to have them sit in the bar or on the terrace as Sunday was a beautiful day. A couple we know from Seville who stayed with us in April showed up unannounced, a pleasant surprise.

Monday, we had a late sleep in as this is a pretty quiet week. Our new door is finished and looks good. Francisco finished that on Friday.... painting around the door and whatever else it needed.

Here's a photo of the new door...

It does make the house look so much more welcoming. Turns out the old door was too wide as well... extra wide; I order this door with a normal measurement so we had to have the extra space closed off with bricks and to us it is very noticeable. Anyway, nice to have a new door.

On Monday I started chasing up the printers who are in the process of making new brochures for us.... I changed printers because the service we got from the first one was too slow and unresponsive. So we changed to another one and low and behold, we have waited for over three weeks just to get the first proof. When I called them on Monday, naturally they said come in tomorrow to see the proof. So I picked it up last night and made a few corrections, dropped it off again today and need to have one more look at it before it goes to print. At this point, we have no brochures in Spanish nor English so we are using the old ones which have no photos.... but hey, better something than nothing, right.

Today we had a couple of tables for lunch. One of them was the owner of the hotel in the next village. In an earlier blog I wrote about the GC coming in and telling us they were going to denounce us for the road signs we installed without permission from the provincial government. Well, the owner of the other hotel today asked me if we were ever denounced for our signs. I told her about our recent experience with the GC regarding this. She told me that she recently received a letter from the Diputacion de Malaga, the provincial government with a fine for the signs she used to have on the road.... a fine of a whopping 900 Euros!! She said she was denounced in February 2005 so it's been almost two years but nevertheless the letter arrived. Her lawyer said he would see if he could do something but doubted it! So perhaps we will get a letter in 18-20 months with notification of a fine for our signs... something fun to look forward to. And yet another thing highlighting the difficult and frustrating bureaucracy in this country, especially for a small business.

Weather report.... it's cool in the evening, still not cold but quite cool. During the day with the sun, it is very nice, both tables sat on the terrace for lunch today, 29 November!! The leaves are falling now, lots of different hues of yellow and other falls colors. No rain to speak of in the last few days.

I'm happy to report that we've now got three painting workshops scheduled for 2007. Maggie Price has been a great fan of ours and has recommended us to a couple of other artists who have contacted me. I've now got another workshop booked for September in addition to Maggie's and to artEscapes, the first group that was here in September. We're hoping for a few more workshops but it is already quite late in 2006 to get bookings for the first half of 2007. These workshops do require some lead time in order that they can be filled and people require some time to get organised so each day that passes makes it less likely that we'll get more of these for the first half of 2007 which is too bad. The scenery here in the springtime is so lovely, I'm sure that when the artists do finally come, they will be very happy with their subjects.

How was business this week? Well, we only had one drop-in on Wednesday, a couple of Belgian girls passing through. We had a group of 5 from Estepona come for lunch on Wednesday as well. They were celebrating a 58th wedding anniversary.... whew, that is a long time!! Otherwise, it has been fairly quiet this week. We only have one booking for tomorrow night but things do pick up again for us in the first week of December as there are two national holidays that week; we have a quite a few bookings that week. And we are working on our Fin de Año fiesta. Unfortunately we had a cancellation of one of the 3 bookings we did have due to family illness, so we still have 6 rooms available. Anyone interested in coming to Juzcar for New Year's Eve? Give us a ring!!

Friday, 24 November already. Yesterday was Thanksgiving in the USA and I was hoping to have a turkey dinner myself with Ivan and perhaps a couple of friends but that was not to be. We had to go to Malaga for the day because our bank that provided us with a mortgage required Ivan to have a physical and that had to be done in Malaga. So he had an appointment in Malaga at 10 AM which required us to leave Juzcar at 8AM. His second appointment was at 7PM, oh so convenient for us.... so we had to spend the whole day in or near Malaga.

The first appointment only lasted about 40 minutes and was on time as well so that worked out OK. We decided to go to Nerja afterwards as we had sold one of our puppies to someone who owns a hotel there and we wanted to see how she was doing. Our French Bulldog, Bandit, had 4 puppies in April 2006. We sold a couple of them, kept one and gifted one to Ivan's sister up in Castilla Leon. So off we went to Nerja, roughly 50KM on the east side of Malaga, a beach front resort town. As neither of us had been there before, it was a good chance to see another town in Malaga and to see the hotel as well.

The puppy had been purchased by Carlos for his daughter. When we arrived, Maria Carmen, Carlos' wife, was in reception and was very pleased to meet us. She told us they were very happy with Reina and that she is just adorable. She had grown of course since we last saw her several months ago but she appeared to remember us. Carlos told us that he had not seen her so excited before. Their hotel is quite nice as well. Very close to the beach, on a plaza so I'm sure they do a very good business.

After we left there, we had some lunch and then headed to Churriana. There is a dog "hotel" there and we are looking for a place to put the dogs while we go on holiday during Christmas and in January when we plan to close for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, they were booked up solid for Christmas but we made a booking for them for January. A very nice kennel with lots of space for the dogs to run around and they offer training as well which our German Shep could use. He's a big dog and wants attention all the time so he jumps up on people and many don't want a big dog on them, including me. So that all should work out nicely.

After that, we picked up some more plastic bags for vacuum packing as Ivan has been going crazy with vacuum packing. He also found out that there is a technician in the area who he called. The technician said he would pass by here one day when he is in the area as he understands Ivan's need to learn more about the machine.

We got back to Ronda around 9.15PM so we picked up some Chinese food for dinner and got back here to Juzcar around 10PM... a very long day indeed.

Here are a couple of photos of the area today with clouds, fog, fall colors and damp appearance:

Alto Genal, above Juzcar, 24 November 2006

Village of Cartajima, 24 November 2004

Today's weather is cool, grey, cloudy, a bit wet. It rained all last night but no leaks yet in the bar. All the chestnut trees have changed their colors now... lots of yellows of various shades. Not much in the way of reds or flame but nevertheless, it looks quite good.

Today is Saturday 18 November and already it's going on 8PM; we've been pretty busy these last few days. Wednesday we went down to Malaga and picked up Ivan's new vacuum packing machine and did a couple of other things that needed taking care of in Malaga capital.

One of them was to get the hot air oven repaired, a very important utensil in our kitchen. Last week, it started over heating, and one of the fans was making a noise that was not right. We packed that into the back of the car (we have a 4X4) having found via the internet that the local technician was based in Malaga and it would save us a lot of money to bring the oven to him as opposed to him to us. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to get everything that was wrong with that oven fixed. Now it is functioning so much better.

The vacuum packing machine was a lot heavier than we expected and bigger as well. It truly is the top of the line. Of course the instruction manual leaves a lot to be desired as it doesn't really explain, in any language, how it functions. It has several programming options, gas use, various setting for amount of vacuum packing and the like. The manufacturer, an Italian company, won't speak to end users (of course!) so we have to figure out how to get some instruction on all the uses of this machine. Anyway, Ivan has already packed up various things into plastic, i.e. steaks, ox tail, quails, frog's legs, stews.... he's been busy!

We were lucky with the weather this week until Thursday when the rain came back. Again we had leaks in the bar because of the constant rain. I think it rained for about 30 hours straight... clearly we are not in a drought situation!

We didn't have anyone staying in the hotel until Friday. We had a group booking for the whole hotel... a group of Brits from Gaucin, another village in the lower Genal Valley, the last one in fact. They were 16 and came to celebrate a 70th birthday. They were all so happy to be here. They started arriving about 4.oo, had drinks at about 7.30 and went into the restaurant at 8.30. We had a nice big fire going in the fireplace to add warmth and atmosphere. They had sent us their dinner order the day before so it was that much easier to serve them... 8 cochinillos were ordered and many solomillo ibierco relleno (stuffed pork tenderloin with chestnuts and prunes). A very nice group; in fact, the host has been raving about us to all his friends in Gaucin so we've been getting quite a bit of business from there... all Brits and all very happy to have a nice place with good food. Apparently, the restaurants in Gaucin leave a bit to be desired.

Today, we have seven rooms. There were 2 drop-ins and the rest were booked during the week or earlier. We also had a gang busting day in the bar and restaurant... there were several hikers about today as the weather was lovely (although it has started to become cold at night).

We also had a visit from the Guardia Civil. It turns out one of their jobs is to patrol who puts up road signs on the main roads... something so disturbing that it requires the GC to be involved. We have three signs on the roads indicating where we are, two are at or near the junction of the San Pedro - Ronda road and the other is at the junction to the Alto Genal (upper Genal Valley) from the Algeciras- Ronda road. So the GC turned up Saturday morning and asked if we had papers demonstrating permission to put up the signs. When we put up the signs, they were a replacement for the previous signs by the previous owner with the old name of the hotel. He, Antonio, told us when we first arrived, that getting permission was a big hassle (like many bureaucratic things in Spain) so don't bother. He advised that if anyone asked about permission, we should just tel them to go and take the signs down themselves (great advice, huh?). We asked our contact at the Serrania de Ronda tourist office, Alfredo, the same question... how do we get permission to put up sign about the hotel on road. He offered similar advice saying that it took much too long and we should just go ahead and put the signs up. He also told us that if we received permission, the signs would have to be official in appearance and could not contain the name of the hotel. So we took his advice and went ahead and installed the signs... and they do look good, not an eyesore on the road side or anything like that.

So now we have been informed by the GC that it is an offense of sorts and that they are reporting us to the Malaga provincial government who may fine us!! Must speak with Alfredo and get some advice as to what to do next... if anything!

Monday, 13 November.... today is our day off. We had a pretty good day Sunday with nine tables for lunch. Of course they all always showed up at about the same time which makes it a bit difficult. And several of them had small children with them which makes it that much more difficult... usually the children are screaming or throwing bread or stomping on the stage. These children were running around the restaurant, screaming and crying... what fun! As for the hotel rooms, we had one booking for the weekend, 2 nights, but then on Saturday, we had a couple of drop-ins which was good. They all had dinner as well so all in all not a bad weekend.

Ivan's brother and father arrived late on Friday evening. They had a lot of carne with them for us. We got quite a few chuleton which is Ivan is looking forward to wrapping in his new vacuum packing machine which we're picking up on Wednesday. Anyway, Carlos and Mariano were here for a couple of nights and helped out on Saturday in the bar and restaurant. They headed back north fairly early on Sunday for the long drive back (seven hours to Madrid from here in a car).

Price Group at Hotel Bandolero, October 2006

This is the second group of painters we had stay with us last month; they are Americans. This was, for many of them, the first holiday in Spain and Europe for that matter. They were all very happy with the hotel, the location, the painting subjects and, of course, the food. The group was organised by Maggie Price, a pastel painter and instructor; she was so pleased with everything that she has already booked another pastel workshop for September/October 2007. We were very happy with this group and we hope to grow this group theme holiday business... much better business than drop-ins and individual bookings. There were also non-painting spouses and they found plenty to keep themselves busy as well.... one day golfing down on the coast, another day exploring the paleolithic cave drawings in the next valley, wondering around Ronda for a day and of course, the light rappelling through La Sima del Diablo in the river here in Juzcar. La Sima del Diablo is located in the Juzcar river... it is four cascades of various heights which you climb down.... backwards with a rope and harness. A couple of the cascades have pools on the bottom of them where you can swim/float. One passes through the most incredible (!!) landscape to get to these cascades walking 4km from entry point in the river to the first cascade. It is a workout and you have equipment as well, not much but some. It is something I strongly recommend to everyone to try while staying at Hotel Bandolero, weather permitting. The husbands had a blast that day and were very happy with our recommendation.

We only started working with this outdoor adventure company in the spring. It is managed by a very charming Spaniard named David and his wife. He is very professional and keeps everyone entertained during the whole experience so it was a lot for fun for everyone, even the wives got to see all when the husbands returned as David put everything onto his laptop for viewing. Everyone got a photo memory CD as well of course.

And the weather... today gorgeous and sunny. Very mild temperatures for this time in November. Looks like the leaves the chestnut trees are trying to finally change colors so a very late autumn. The weather has been beatiful since Thursday but looks like there is some cloud in the forecast for the coming day or so. With this weather now, it is perfect for walking, hiking, bird watching or just reading a book with a tall cool drink. Now that the sun has gone down though, it's time to light a fire.

Well, I think I'm going to go home a relax for a while and then have some dinner so adios for now.

Today is Friday. The rain stopped Wednesday night and we had a drying up day yesterday so today is beautiful.... clear skies, sun, light breeze, mild temps... very nice. It is rather quiet today as well.

On Wednesday, we had one booking, a couple who came from Israel, the first guests from that country. They stayed one night here during their tour of Spain; they flew into Madrid from Tel Aviv and have been doing a car tour. Unfortunately for them, Wednesday night was very, very wet. After dinner, I offered them a movie to watch in the salita (our salon) which they gratefully accepted as they could not go for the walk they wanted. Yesterday they were heading down to the coast and then off to Granada to see the Alhambra. The wife was actually Canadian and her husband was Israeli. We meet interesting people all the time in this business.

We also had a drop in couple, Swedes they were. They too were on a driving holiday of Andalucia. They had seen the website of a place in the next village and went there to get a room. On arrival at about 6.15, there was only a phone number stuck to the door which they called. The owner told them he would be back at about 7.45 and sent them to us for something to eat. After chatting with them for a while, they asked for our room price list and then decided that they'd stay here instead. So we had two rooms on Wednesday night .... for dinner as well.

Tonight, Ivan's brother Carlos and his father arrive for a couple of nights. They are coming to deliver some meat to us. We have Chuletón de Ávila on the menu as well as Suprema de Cochinillo but we have not had a supply of the meat for a few weeks since we sold the last ones. We always have it brought down from up north and we have a reputation in this area for being able to eat this authentic meat from up north here. In fact, a group from Málaga that booked the whole hotel last month requested that we let them know when we have the chuletón so they could come up for another fabulous meal and night's stay.

What is a chuletón, you ask.... it is a cut of meat like a steak ... lamb, pork, beef, any meat but in our case beef and rather large at 450 to 550 grams. And coming from Ávila makes it special as Ávila is famous for its beef.

The cochinillo from Ávila and Segovia is also famous in Spain. Ivan's method of preparation for the cochinillo has earned him rave reviews from every guest who has ordered it. Have a look on the guest book page of the hotel website to see what people have said about his cochinillo. He prepares it boneless so what is on the plate when served is completely edible. And it looks very nice as well. Here it is below...

Doesn't this look tasty? It comes with a spicy honey sauce and seasoned mashed potatoes. The shot glass has juice that it cooked in to pour on it or sip it... as you like.

Tonight we have one reservation for two nights....a Spanish couple who are arriving between 9 & 10 this evening and will dine then as well. Hopefully the weather will hold out so that we can have decent lunch business tomorrow.

Oh and as today is Friday, perhaps you remember that the power company was supposed to turn off the power today... all day. Well, they called and cancelled due to the heavy rain earlier this week. This is the second time they've cancelled.

On Monday, Ivan and I went pine cone collecting. On the other side of Pujerra village, which is a neighboring village and the village with the chestnut co-op... well there is a rather large pine forest on the slopes of the mountain. There are lots of pine cones along the road and pine cones are great for getting a fire going. Last year, Ivan's mother and I went and collected bags of them at about this time. They were not yet opened however so we've left them next to the stove in the bar to dry and sure enough they have been opening all week. We put them in the guest rooms with the wood for the stoves there. Nothing like a nice roaring fires on a cold night to keep warm by.

I received a piece of mail on Thursday which I had to sign for; it was from the department of statistics in Málaga capital. They maintain these statistics on room nights (how many rooms and where the guests are from) in the tourist industry in Andalucia so they send us this questionnaire every month. Apparently they did not receive August from us and so sent it certified informing us it is obligatory to complete. A few minutes after I opened the letter, the phone rang.... it was them!! Very strange... as if he knew in that minute I had opened the mail they sent to us. Anyway, I completed that form last night and faxed it them this morning so they are now happy.

Next up....... the story of Diego!

The power company called this morning. They wanted to let us know they are cutting the power on Friday from 8.00-16.00 hrs. I couldn't believe that they actually called to let us know. Normally they just turn the power off without warning. And then a few minutes later, someone from the power company actually turned up in the bar to post a notice that the power would be cut and to whom!! Progress. So no power all day Friday, for improvement to their network so it can't be bad.

And yesterday evening, three technician showed up from Iberbanda, the company with the contract to provide all the small villages of Andalucia with broad band access to the internet. This is the second time they've been here. The first was more than a month ago to install some equipment on Francisco's finca... his finac happens to be the ideal location for their antenna which broadcasts their signal for satellite broadband access. So we thought after a short time later we would have our broadband access as this dial-up service that we currently enjoy (!) is so slow (sometimes only 40 kbps). But that was not the case and we have been waiting and waiting...... and now these boys turn up yet again to do some more of whatever it is they do to get it running. Hopefully soon.

The weather we suffered yesterday with all that rain was apparently not as bad as what the coast was suffering. We heard that several cars were washed into the sea in Mijas from all the heavy rain. We went to Igualeja yesterday afternoon to buy some meat and when we were returning, there had been a rock slide on the road we came down only a few minutes earlier and half the road was covered in rubble. Very heavy rain yesterday. Today there is just lots of fog and cloud about but so far no rain.

Ivan made a couple of tarts yesterday afternoon. I have to take them into Ronda now. We sell tarts to a restaurant in Ronda called La Quinta. We've trying to grow a cakes and catering business. We have sold quite a few of Ivan's cakes to the village people. We did a wedding cake in September to a young lady from Ronda who found us on the web.... she has ordered another cake this month for her husband's upcoming birthday. Selling to the restaurants in Ronda has not really taken off for us but we're trying. Have you seen our cake website... www.bandolerocatering.com ... there are plenty of photos of Ivan's products.

I spent all afternoon yesterday catching up on my accounting.... in-putting all those bills ... didn't have time to calculate the revenue yet though. Perhaps this afternoon. I input everything into my system before I hand it over to my gestor (accountant) who does all the official stuff. We actually had a refund last quarter which I was surprised at. We saved it for the next quarter in case we owe.

So last night we wound up with two unexpected rooms for the three technos from the ISP company. They had some tapas for dinner and went to bed early. Ivan got up to give them breakfast at 8.30 this morning. Today we have one room coming in and then the next booking arrives on Friday for two nights. We've also been taking enquiries for New Year's Eve. The first booking for that arrived several weeks ago, in fact I think it was in August... a Norwegian couple. And we also have a UK friend and new husband coming as well. So we still have a few rooms available ... de momento.

The owner of the casa rural next door arrived on Monday to do some work there. His name is Paul and he is from the UK. He and his wife bought the place in April and we have been working with them ever since.... a joint effort to increase both our businesses. Paul's placed a few adverts in UK walking magazines as that is his target market. He's now starting to get some results. I use his space as my overflow space since we have only 8 rooms. His additional 5 rooms gives us a good size for groups. He also has Francisco & his wife working for him! The bungalows, as we refer to them, were built by the same guy we bought the hotel from. He sold them separately and they have changed hands one more time since we arrived.

The US elections were held yesterday. I sent in my absentee ballot to NY. I see that Hilary Clinton won her seat easily. Looks like we finally have a change in Congress... hopefully for the better!

Anyway, it's raining again! Wet, wet wet. I'm off to Ronda.

This is the first group of painters to come and spend a theme holiday here at Hotel Bandolero (standing in front of the view); they were from Scotland. Nicky, third from the right, organised the whole thing. It was quite a good practise preparing for the the bigger group that came in the first week of October. This group spent seven nights with us. It was quite good fun actually. It was nice to have group business, something we are really striving for now. Nicky's business is called ArtEscapes.... and her painter/students are typically retired seniors enjoying life. This group has been with her before and no doubt will be with her again in the future.

I hope she comes again; although she did not have as many participants as she was hoping for, she came anyway, hoping to build momentum for the coming year. The group was very happy with everything.... I think they got more than they expected. They even gave us a couple of their pieces when they left.

We got a new door for the house delivered today. I ordered it from the same carpenter that made two windows for us in a couple of rooms in the hotel. It is a light color as opposed to the one we have now. The one we have now is just falling to pieces, literally. So there are cracks in it and it just does not do what you expect a front door to do. We will have to have Francisco install it.

Who is Francisco? He is our maintenance man. He came with the hotel basically. He lives in the village is about 42 years old, married to Maria Jesus who also works for us and has his own construction business. When Francisco speaks, everyone can hear him... he is one of those people who just has a booming voice... in fact I don't think he knows what a whisper is.

Anyway, when we first arrived here. Francisco was basically running the hotel for Antonio, the guy we bought from. He came in five days a week for three hours a day. In the beginning, that was good as we needed the assistance and guidance on how things worked here. But we were also working on the assumption that he was telling us everything we needed to know. It wasn't that long before we discovered he was telling us things that HE thought we needed to know, so therefore there were omissions until something happened and it became obvious that we did not know something which we should know. We weren't happy or impressed about that and knew we needed to take corrective measures but what to do without loosing him.... there was no one else available to do this kind of work and we certainly did not have the knowledge necessary to undertake maintenance work.

This of course created a bit of a problem. We really needed to maintain a good relation with Francisco but we did not want him to think that we were running the business the same way that Antonio did which was very hands off. We did run into a very rough patch with him at this point .... we started hearing from people in the village that he did not like Ivan and that he did not want to work in the hotel anymore. It got a bit worse when we reduced his hours....15 hours a week was just simply too many hours for what he does. We changed it to two days a week with six hours. That works very nicely now. The problem at the time was that he had been running the place. He even told us that he considered buying the hotel..... "but my wife would not let me". So he was having a problem coming to terms with the fact that there were new owners who were not only hands on but had ideas of what and how they wanted the place to be run.

Well, I told Ivan that we should not bring up any of the gossip we heard in the village about his feelings... only if he brought anything up should it be discussed. That worked because in the end, he never said anything directly to us and of course is still working for us today. He is the type of guy that likes to have his fingers in everything that is happening in the village. While at times we are guarded with what we tell him, he has been good for our business. He is a bit much at times but I like him nevertheless. One just has to remember who he is and what he does. He can pretty much repair anything we ask of him. He likes to tease Ivan that he is the best at whatever he does including some things that Ivan does, i.e. making liquor.

Yes, Ivan has a still which we set up in the kitchen from time to time to make liquor. Francisco made the still and has one of his own of course. Now, October/November, is the time to make the liquor in fact because of the grape harvest. Francisco gave us a huge container of grape skins which Ivan has been using to make liquor. We don't sell it because strictly speaking it is not legal. But we do let our guests sample it from time to time. Ivan flavors them with lemon, chocolate, coffee, nuts, mandarin and other flavors. Lemon is his favorite, almost like an Italian Lemon-chelo (splg?). It is also very strong so small shots are enough. So that's Francisco.

The weather today.... very wet. It has been raining since last night. It stopped for a few hours this morning but it is coming down again now. When it rains so hard, we wind up with puddles in the bar as the bar walls have leaks. In fact, Francisco painted the wall in the bar last spring due to all the water damage and already it is falling to pieces and looks like c-r-a-p due to this heavy wet weather. (That's the bar in the photo after it was painted in the spring.... looks pretty good in the photo, no?)

It is only a question of time before the lights go as well as that regularly happens here with the bad weather. Fortunately, it is not yet cold.... in fact still fairly mild considering this cloud cover and rain.

Today is Monday. We were able to sleep in this morning as we have no guests until Wednesday.

On Saturday, the two rooms that were supposed to check in didn't turn up during waking hours. We called them Saturday evening to ask if they were still coming (as they had pre-paid for the rooms, I thought they would turn up). They said they were in Pujerra, another village here in the valley where there was a chestnut festival and they were with family. They would come a bit later.... yeah, later all right. I went to bed at 2AM after waiting for them to ring the bell. The phone rang at 3.30 AM... "oh we're here now ... can someone open the door?" I was very unimpressed.

Sunday wasn't a bad day... we had 5 tables for lunch and then closed for the remainder of the day, as per usual. We had a quiet evening at home and watched a film.

So, about Antonio and Isabel, the meanest couple in the village. Who can say why people behave the way they do. This couple are older, late sixties, perhaps even early seventies, appear to be in fairly good health (appearances can be deceiving) and had a fairly pleasant disposition toward us when we first arrived in the village 25 months ago. We have not done anything to them in anyway except greet them when we saw them. The first signs that they were going to be a problem for us was the day Isabel beckoned Ivan to the front of her house. Their house is across the road from the hotel but it is also down an incline, so the hotel is higher than their house. She called over to Ivan because she wanted to show him that there was some water run off from the hotel terrace with dirt in it and she could have slipped. This of course all being our fault. The water drain that crosses the road before her house is blocked up and so the water runs passed her house down the street, the public street.

Ivan said this was indicative that they would probably complain at the drop of a hat about anything. Well, the complaint came later and was about the dogs. We brought two dogs with us when we arrived here in Juzcar, Pasky is our German Shepherd and Bandit the French Bulldog, both pups when we first arrived. (We now have three dogs as Bandit had pups in April 2006 and we kept one, Lolita.)

Anyway, Antonio and Isabel have goats and sheep on their finca which is down a track from the hotel off the main road. We sometimes take the dogs for walks on this road. One day Ivan did just that. Antonio was there in the road with his few goats, sheep and his lame sheep dog. Naturally Pasky and Bandit were curious and went to check things out. Neither listened very well to their masters at the time but neither did they do anything to those animals. This is when Antonio's true colors started to come through.... he started yelling at Ivan about the dogs, while grabbing his nether regions (charming!) and shaking a fist. He told Ivan to go back to where he came from! He invited Ivan into a fist fight and he told Ivan to shove the dogs up his *ss (very charming!!)

We were both in a bit of shock at this behavior. Naturally Ivan told me all about it shortly after this occurred. This, after their almost psychotic waving greetings us..."buenas dias, buenas tardes". We were dumbstruck. This was not the last time something like this would occur. Next thing though, the Guardia Civil ("GC") showed up in our bar. Pedro is a sergeant in the GC; he is also the resident GC in Juzcar as he lives here full time. He looks like a GC from the Franco days and that's a look designed to intimidate people. Well he came into the bar with a fairly easy disposition and asked what happened with Antonio. Ivan explained and he told us we had to have the dogs on a lead when they are in the village (they were not in the village when this happened). He seemed to downplay the episode.

Well, word travels fast in this village and everyone knew what had happened. Antonio claimed that because of our dogs, one of his goats had a broken teet. We thought, if that's true, show us as anyone could make an accusation like that. Anyway, as word was traveling, we got the story on these two. The stroy is that they go for anyone and everyone. They've sued their neighbors over the most trivial things. Antonio even slapped the woman across the road in the face once. They've denounced (a Spanish legal process involving official compaint reports to the GC and usually resolved by an appearance in court) several people in the village. Isabel is the aunt of one of our regulars, Willie, who told us that she does not speak to any of her 5 brothers. Their daughter also has a loose reputation and is said to be even meaner than they are.

Now, the most recent thing they've done was complain to the village hall about all the parked cars in the road. We've had a good bit of business of late and naturally people have to park their cars. In front of the hotel on the other side of the road is a railing with a lovely view. There is also enough space there to parrallel park and still have cars pass without a problem. Well, while I was away in NY last month, someone from the village hall showed up and painted a yellow line down the entire front of that railing. We were told that someone complained that they could not pass with their car with all the parked vehicles there.

Little do they know that we don't really care about that. It does not affect our business as there is still plenty of parking. But of course this is the type of people we are dealing with. And of course, Pedro, the GC in Juzcar, is a nephew to them. He has started to give us some indications of possible problems with him as well. This is because he is one of the small minded village people.

Anyway, that's a story about the meanest people in the village. I stay out of their way but can't help calling them nasty names behind their backs. Even Ivan's mother and father have had a run in with them and involving the GC. Fortunately that ended well because Mariano, Ivan's father, knows the head of the GC up in Avila.

Anyway, that's my story for today.

Weather today, cloudy, cool, some patchy fog. Still the chestnut trees here in Juzcar have not really changed the color of their leaves... they are a pale green at this late date. Perhaps they will all just fall off this year without changing color... bummer.

Time does fly. We were closed on Thursday for a day of shopping down in Malaga capital. No guests in the house so it was a good day to get out early with no hindrances. Oh yes, first you want to know how it went on Wednesday with that group of bikers.

Well, they started arriving about 2.00. When Manuela, the organiser, arrived, she told us they had picked up a couple more interested parties on the road.... so in the end, they were 56!! We had set up the dining room so we had sufficient space to walk around putting down and picking up plates and drinks. Of course, they decided to re-arrange the room to their liking. I had to inform them that it didn't work for me as I would not be able to get around.. so they moved things for me. Other than that, they were a fairly easy group, no one complained, unlike the group of Brits where one man told me the roast potatoes were NOT roasted potatoes. AND it was cold!! This group just wanted more to drink... cerveza sin alcohol... they were bikers on bikes afterall.

Everything went well actually and they were all very pleased. I served and cleared all the plates while Dani and Ivan were in the kitchen. They had pincho de gambas (shrimp on a stick), plates of cured meat, cheese, tortillas de chanquetes (white bait), green salad, dressed aubergine, legs of lamb, beef tenderloin with threee types of sauces and dover sole. Dessert was a combination of crema quemada de castanas (baked chestnut cream with toasted sugar), cheese cake with blackberries, chocolate volcanos and chocolate ice cream.

So, I think we will receive some repeat business from this group as they kept telling me afterwards how great everything was ("buenissima"). They were from Sevilla, Cadiz, Malaga, and as far away as Barcelona, or so we were told.

So Thursday we went to Malaga and spent some serious dosh. We finally felt financially comfortable enough to buy a couple of machines we were seriously lacking... a glass washer for the bar and a food vacuum packer for the kitchen. Both are expensive items. Ivan has wanted one of these packers for some time now. With this machine, he will be able to prepare food, vacuum pack it and not have to worry about it going off. It will last much longer. Since our business flow has not been even, it has been hard to predict how much food to prepare without having to throw it away. Now, we should not have that problem. I will collect the machine on 15 November when I next go down to Malaga... we brought the glass washer home on the day and it is now working in the bar, hooray!

We also went to our favorite Asian food store in Fuengirola, the only one we know of in Malaga province. There, we bought some Malaysian chilli sauce and some Vietnamese dipping sauce... all very expensive mind you as it is imported from the UK by the owner to satisfy her small market here in Malaga. So those of us that shop there must pay thru the nose for the products which cost a quarter of the price in London or New York but, whatchagonnado??

Yesterday, Friday, our storage business came to a halt. We had the furniture of a couple that re-located here in March. They bought a finca in the next village. They are clients of the Irish guy, Colm (pronounced "Col-um"), who sells property in the area (and doesn't speak any Spanish to speak of..... but has been here for more than 3 years!!!). Anyway, they needed a place to store their house furnishing as they had not yet found a place to rent while they waited for their new place to be built. So, we agreed to put their things in a large empty room we have upstairs for a nominal monthly charge for a couple of months. That was in March 2006. I asked Richard to please find another place as we weren't in the business of storage... that finally happened and they took their stuff yesterday.

Then we had a couple of rooms last night. Clients from Dos Hermanas near Sevilla. They had stayed in the bungalows next door when they were here last time. They had also decided that they wanted to return to Juzcar (pronounced "whoth-car") but to stay with us in the hotel. They are five and have two rooms. They had a nice dinner last night and we just served them a very nice lunch this afternoon.

We had a good evening as well last night in addition to the dinners we served. A few of the local boys were here all evening drinking away.

We have another two rooms arriving today at some point but I don't know when. It is already 18.00 hrs and not a word from them so far.

And about the weather, it is a bit crap at the moment. Yesterday, clouds and rain... today, clouds and rain. And the days are getting shorter as we all have noted...'tis the season.

Now, the meanest couple in the village.... I want to write a little something about them but this entry is getting a bit long now so I'll have to end and write a bit about them later. There are other stories about the village, things that have happened in the past but are worthy of writing about here. I will get to them, bit by bit. I hope this is not a bore for any of my readers... let me have your comments when and if you have a moment.

Today is All Saints Day. The Ronda police have traffic guides up in the roads near the cemetary because so many people have been heading there to place flowers on the graves of loved ones.... how nice that they still do something traditional.

Last night was Halloween so naturally we had some of the non-Spanish children turn up at the door of the bar yelling "TRICK or TREAT", several times!! (The Spanish have not yet caught on to this fabulous idea of banging on strangers' doors and demanding tricks or treats disguised as a ghost or something like that.) Very annoying especially as I had guests dining there in the bar. I gave them some mentos and sent them on their way.

So last night we had four rooms. Two were a drop-in, one of the couples had been here last year, a retired Finnish couple.... this time they brought a couple of retired Swedish friends. They had a bite to eat and then asked for a couple of rooms. Then a French friend of Ivan's from London who now lives down on the Costa del Sol sent his visiting brother and girlfriend up for a night. That plus one reservation from Monday gave us four rooms last night. They all ate dinner with us as well so we were busy last night.

Today is a national holiday in Catholic Spain. We happen to be closed today to the public as we have a group of 54 bikers coming in for lunch. They will be here in about an hour. This is a group that started out as 8-12 people for lunch. Then suddenly it was 40 and yesterday it creapt up to 54!! I was not thrilled about that as serving 54 people, even in a fixed menu situation, is tough when there are only three of us working, Ivan in the cocina and me and Dani in the dining room.

Dani is one of the locals who helps us out; he's certainly not the best waiter but he is certainly better than no one at all. He makes me crazy though... for example, this morning. I was serving breakfast to the last couple. I went into the kitchen for a glass of O.J. and came out into the bar and wound up on my back on the floor!! Smashed glass of OJ all over the floor and me now with a sore wrist. He "mopped" the floor, didn't say anything and left a film of water on the floor... naturally I went flying. I was not happy as you can imagine. Our floors are the worst possible type of flooring for a bar and kitchen... smooth tile that is VERY dangerous when wet with even only a drop of water. I've slipped more than once even after introducing rules for when the floor can be mopped.

Anyway, the biker group is now starting to arrive so I have to man the bar as Dani is in the kitchen helping Ivan prepare. We've set up ten tables for them. Manuela said this group would be easy going considering we are only 3 to serve them... I hope so. The last large group we had for lunch, 50 Brits in early October, went well for the most part but was trying at times. Anyway, I'm off.